Who makes Book donations to Bill & Rosa’s Book Room?

Book donations to Bill & Rosa's Book Room. So who are the people who donate their books to Bill & Rosa's Book Room? Each donation is different and brings a new profile and trip to some very interesting apartments and towns. Many people give us their entire libraries at once, some bring in a few books at a time. For example Barney's estate donated more than 2000 books on Paris, art and novels. Barney was an American who lived in Europe most of his life. His wife was German and they lived in Germany and then Paris. From browsing his library we can see that Barney kept busy attending readings and lectures in Paris. Many of the novels that had been presented at Shakespeare & Co and the American Library over the years are signed by the authors and include flyers about the event or newspaper clippings about the author. Barney was also a friend and fan of the Fluxus art movement which provided some incredibly rich hand crafted one-of-a-kind books. There was a portrait of …
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  • 25 mars 2026
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The Mistral, great wind of France

"By midnight, the wind was straight out of the west, and he heard the moan leap to bellowing, a terrible wind out of the catalog of winds. A wind related to the Blue Northern, the frigid Blaast and the Landlash. A cousin to the Bull’s-eye squall that started in a small cloud with a ruddy center, mother-in-law to the Vinds-gnyr of the Norse Sagas, the three day Nor’easters of maritime New England. And uncle wind to the Alaskan Williwaw and Ireland’s wild Doinionn.  Stepsister to the Koshava that assaults the Yugoslavian plains with Russian snow, the Steppenwind, and the violent Buran from the great open steps of central Asia, the Crivetz, the frigid Viugas and Purgas of Siberia, and from the north of Russia, the ferocious Myatel. A blood brother of the prairie Blizzard, the Canadian Arctic screamer known simply as Northwind, and the Pittarak smoking down off Greenland‘s ice fields. This nameless wind scraped the Rock [New Foundland] with an edge like steel." From The Shipping Ne…
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  • 19 mars 2026
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Understanding the Municipal Elections in France

First: what is a Municipality? In France a municipality is referred to as a « commune ». The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin  communia, meaning a large gathering of people sharing a common life; from Latin communis, things held in common. This new word replaced that of parish, which under the Ancien Régime designated simultaneously a religious entity (still relevant today), a territorial administrative district, and a fiscal one. Introduced by royal decree in December 1789, along with the word "mayor," this new designation was definitively established in November 1793. The gift from the Convention on Christmas Day, 1792was universal suffrage.  However that concept was short lived when under the Directory, and for almost the entire 19th century. Then during the third Republic of 1884 mayors were designated by the municipal councilors. At the same time, universal male suffrage was introduced. A municipality thus consists of the …
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  • 13 mars 2026
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Villepreux a microcosm of French history

During the confinement we had a lot of time to walk around our town, Villepreux, 11,000 people situated in the Yvelines department west of Paris. A usually quiet, non-descript town, we hadn’t thought too much about it before but there were a couple of spots that intrigued us while out walking within one kilometer of the house. One of them was the path that we walked called the Chemin entre Deux Murs or the path between two walls. What two walls? What was that all about? Then there’s the old village with a couple of houses that look pretty old including one with visible half timbers. There’s a chateau, in fact there are two, plus centuries-old farms and a neighborhood called the Prieuré or priory. The new center of town is a 1960s construction out of cement. Town houses and a shopping area that hasn’t worn very well over the years. The first impression is that Villepreux is a rather ordinary suburban bedroom community of Paris or closer Versailles. But once you start lookin…

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  • 1 mars 2026
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